


Capacity

by whenyoudesertme (phrenk)



Category: Lucky Seven (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-25
Updated: 2013-03-25
Packaged: 2017-12-06 09:57:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/734379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phrenk/pseuds/whenyoudesertme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another coworker infiltrates Kayano's personal place of relaxation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Capacity

**Author's Note:**

> I saw someone mention this pairing idea and, since I just wrote something Lucky Seven, it felt like the time to make an attempt. Thanks to kinoface for the encouragement! ♥ Cross-posted [here](http://whenyoudesertme.livejournal.com/31279.html).

He was in her coffee shop.

Shuntaro's presence always seemed to fill a room, and in the small coffee shop it was even worse than usual. His broad shoulders and leather jacket seemed to warp the air around him until her precious space was just another place for Shuntaro to lounge attractively.

How was he even lounging on a stool in the first place.

"One coffee please," she said, bitter about the smile on Shuntaro's face when he turned and saw her, as if he'd been waiting.

The owner nodded, unusually silent. He was probably cowed that someone other than Kayano was in his shop.

She stared out the window and across at their office. Shuntaro was sitting in her spot.

After a moment, during which she could _feel_ him smirking at her, she intoned, "What are you doing here?"

"I was thirsty," he said, clearly pleased with himself. Kayano wished briefly for Asuka, since there were definitely insults that needed saying here.

Rather than make them herself, she just gave a begrudging hum, moving past him to sit at one of the tables. She wished she'd brought her laptop, but she hadn't thought she'd be able to focus on anything right then.

Shuntaro, never one to take a hint, sat down at her table. He didn't sit down across from her, like a normal person would have, but right next to her, making the table feel tiny with the way he was right there. His arm nudged her shoulder.

She pretended not to notice but scooted closer to the wall.

"Kayano," he singsonged, low-pitched and irritating. She could feel him looking at her again.

"This is my personal place of relaxation," she muttered to herself.

"What was that?" he asked, leaning in even closer. Phrases Kayano thought Asuka might use in this moment: big lout, senseless dolt, oblivious goon. Possibly something with cursing in it.

"Nothing." She raised her voice to say again, "One coffee, please," since it seemed the owner's acknowledgment hadn't led to any actual coffee preparation.

Maybe if she put on her headphones, Shuntaro would go away. She raised her hands to her neck to touch them, but he spoke before she made up her mind.

"Do you have something you want to talk about?"

He sounded serious.

She let silence answer the question.

Shuntaro didn't let it go. "Maybe something that's making you unhappy? You've been spending even more time here than usual, but drinking less coffee. Lots of staring off into space and all that."

Kayano furrowed her brow. "Have you been talking to the owner?"

"There are windows. I looked through them." He pushed back his chair, sighing as he got comfortable. For a moment she thought he might stretch his arms out, maybe even put one behind her on her chair, but she wasn't the kind of girl he'd make that move with.

She sighed at herself as she recognized the petty turn of her thoughts, because she knew Shuntaro wouldn't have made that move on her even if she _were_ the kind of girl he liked, because they worked together and he was respectful of her space.

Generally. She grimaced as she turned her head to look at him and remembered he was _right there._

At last she said blandly, "You should be a detective."

It seemed like meeting his eyes shut him up, or maybe he saw something in hers that had him easing back. He just nodded, then looked away.

The coffee came, but Kayano didn't drink it. She put her hands around the cup and let it warm her that way, feeling dull.

Shuntaro didn't leave, but he did make an effort to be quiet.

It lasted a few minutes, which was a few minutes longer than she had anticipated.

"Ah, Kayano-chan," Shuntaro said abruptly, like water spilling over a dam. "Why do you like this place so much? We have coffee in the office, too."

She leaned her head against the wall, suddenly sleepy.

She'd had three places where she spent most of her time, before the split. Her coffee shop, where she relaxed; her office, where she worked; and her home, where she lived with the boyfriend she'd met in college. Where she had lived with him, before he broke up with her, citing how little she was willing to discuss her work with him when he was always complaining to her about his dead-end tech job. She liked keeping the three things separate.

Kayano hadn't had any intention of answering Shuntaro's questions about her personal life, but when he asked her about coffee, somehow she answered, "We'd been together for three years."

Shuntaro hunched down, voice dropping to a whisper. "You and the coffee guy?"

Her eyes went wide, then she thunked her head against the wall, despairing of his understanding anything. "No," she grumbled. She expected him to follow up, but it seemed he had some tact after all, which made her wonder why he didn't employ it more often.

He was very close to her, she thought suddenly, possibly the closest he'd ever been. She realized her heart was beating very fast. When had that happened.

The excitement she felt was unwelcome, so she changed the subject and ended up saying, "He kept the apartment."

"Ahh," Shuntaro said understandingly, though he understood nothing. "So where are you living? After so long, it must be almost as hard to leave your space as to end the relationship."

Maybe he understood a few things. Asuka would say it was accidental.

Maybe she could move in with her. Did Asuka have her own place?

"At home," she said tonelessly. "I'm going to murder my family."

He nodded, though she was pretty sure he lived at home without any homicidal tendencies. "You seem like someone who needs her space."

" _This_ is my space," she said.

"Are you sad?" he asked bluntly. Then, more softly: "About him?"

She waved a hand. "Eh. He never quite lived up to his potential."

"Does he have more right than you to the apartment? Because I could make him leave," he said, looking ominously ready for a fight.

She had never been much impressed with people just because they could fight. Still, it was a nice offer, she guessed. She shook her head, and he didn't push.

The owner brought over a cup of coffee for Shuntaro without being asked. After sipping it, Shuntaro said with awe, "This is delicious."

Maybe she'd find a new coffee shop if this one kept getting discovered. Shikishima Coffee was so close, but if loudmouths like Junpei and Shuntaro were infiltrating...

"Mei-chan," Shuntaro tried after a moment.

"My family calls me that," she said flatly.

He shook his head, saying immediately, "Kayano-chan. Is there anything I can do for you?"

I need another escape, Kayano thought. A place, or a hobby; something that's for _me._

She said only, "No."

He was quiet a few more minutes as she tried to make the math work in her head for her own apartment. She sighed, turning her thoughts onto potential hobbies instead.

Shuntaro said chattily, as if they were in the middle of a good gossip rather than a semi-comfortable silence, "Are you looking for some new experiences, then, since you've only been in something so serious?"

She didn't know why he assumed that she'd only had the one boyfriend, but she didn't pursue it because he was right.

His words sank in, making her perk up in a curious way. For three years she'd felt settled, if not enlivened, or even, really, satisfied...

She realized she was looking down at the way Shuntaro filled out his jeans just as he went on, "Because I could introduce you to some nice, handsome guys, you know."

"You're a nice guy," Kayano murmured, and Shuntaro ducked his head.

"Thank you," he said, almost sheepish.

She turned to face him square on. "You're handsome, too."

"What does that have to do with--Kayano! You're messing with me!" He slapped his knee like it was all a big joke, but he looked uneasy.

She shrugged, turning back toward the table. She knew she wasn't his kind of girl.

She took a sip of her lukewarm coffee and wanted to spit it back out. She thought about Shuntaro's nice, handsome friends, and how maybe it sounded nice to have something less serious, but also about how long it took her to trust someone, which made a fling with a stranger impossible.

"I live at home, so that would be out," Shuntaro said suddenly, loud in the small room. "I know you were just messing with me, of course, I wouldn't ever think otherwise, but if you _weren't_ , Kayano..."

On the edge of saying something, Kayano looked over to see the owner watching them with fascination, not even bothering to pretend to stop listening when he realized he'd been spotted. She snorted in derision.

Shuntaro panicked and backtracked. "Of course, I said! Of course I know you were messing with me--"

"Shuntaro-san," she interrupted. "There is a hotel across the street." She felt strangely calm. She thought she could have a fling with him without feelings getting in the way. His romantic track record seemed to indicate the same.

As she grew calmer, Shuntaro seemed to grow more agitated. "You're messing with me some more?! I mean, no... I mean, yes! Wait, is this a test, did Junpei-san put you up to this, oh god, am I going to be fired." He practically shouted, as if he suspected she were wearing a microphone, "No disrespect intended! I absolutely won't think of Kayano-san as a woman from now on!"

"Shuntaro-san," she repeated, leaning her head back against the wall. "There's a hotel across the street."

She really would have thought someone with so much experience would be better with women. Just as she thought it, his fingers slid across her wrist. When she turned, startled, he leaned in and kissed her.

There was a loud thunk and the sound of beans falling everywhere. The owner was apologizing frantically but Kayano barely heard him.

Shuntaro was gentle, and his mouth was so warm. It felt like he'd stay like this forever, just pressing his lips against hers so softly.

Still, it didn't really feel like a prelude to a romp in the love hotel across the street, and Kayano, though motionless with the sweetness of the simple kiss, was strangely disappointed. He must not see her that way after all.

As she turned her face away, she remembered, with belated anger, how her boyfriend had always said she was cute but not sexy.

Shuntaro leaned in closer, his lips brushing her ear. His voice was very soft as he said, "Do you know what I'd do if no one else were here?"

"Not sexy," she said evenly, though her blood zinged strangely through her veins. "And you're not smooth."

He ignored this. "I'd scoop you up," he said even lower, then nuzzled her ear. Despite herself, Kayano made a surprised noise, head tilting without her even realizing it.

"I'd pull you into my lap so I could kiss you as much as I wanted. If you wrapped your legs around my hips, then..." He trailed off, pulling back slowly, then kissed her again.

It was as simple as the first one, at least above the table where the owner could see. With his husky voice in her mind, with how he'd pictured _her_ , even the press of their lips would have felt dirty to Kayano this time around, but that wasn't the only way Shuntaro was touching her.

Unseen under the table, his hand dragged slowly up her thigh.

She thought of a bed, and Shuntaro, and Shuntaro unclothed and in a bed, and then she put herself in the picture, and with the way he was touching her right then, it didn't spoil it. On the contrary, she pictured herself on top of him, touching him in ways her ex hadn't liked, because her ex had always expected her to lie there and be grateful for whatever he wanted with her. Three years she'd wasted.

As if he could hear her thinking, Shuntaro backed up and looked into her eyes. "You'll have to tell me what you like," he said, so solemnly considerate that she was a little less sure she could trust her feelings with him. She didn't care.

"We'll figure it out," she said dispassionately, then raised her hand to the owner. "Check, please."


End file.
